Swings in the sunbeams
Quiet and still in waiting they hang for little hands to grab their chains, little feet to pump so they may fly higher and higher, the swings hang waiting in the light of the sunbeams.
Remember the sensation of getting to the swings first on the playground during recess as a child and trying to save the one next to you for your best friend? Giggling, kicking, pumping, and thrilled to be flying so high into the air almost touching the sky with your feet. Remember that soothing rocking motion of the swing. Remember hanging your head backwards and looking up at the sky as though you were no longer attached to the swing but simply floating on air? What would childhood have been without all the swing sets?
As a child, the youngest of four, I remember plenty of times when I would swing alone on the play set in my backyard. I never felt completely alone in the backyard on my swing set even as a small child I remember singing songs to God when swinging. I knew He was there with me. I had no need to find scientific evidence that God was there. I had no need to understand any fundamental beliefs about any one religion, although I was raised Catholic. I didn’t question creation, existence or the afterlife. I believed that God was next to me when I was swinging on my swing and touching the sky with my feet because I felt His presence in that moment. I just knew without a doubt without confusion, without proof that He was there.
As children we are open to life, belief and mystery. As we age we question all that we once accepted freely. Do we question because we gain knowledge or because we stop trusting our instincts? A child can see what we as adults wish we could renew; the simple truths of life. The truth that God is there next to us on the swing set, in the car, in our homes, at our workplaces, in the eyes of our children and in our hearts daily not because it is proven or understandable just because it is true. Remember the times on the swing set as a child let the memories come back to you and feel that openness. Now grab hold of a shred of that trusting heart and let it sink into your adulthood and believe for God is with you even now.
